To run the Delete Static Keys command, in the Graph Editor (or Dopesheet Editor)’s menu bar, go to Key > Delete Static Keys. This operator removes redundant keyframes that don’t contribute to the animation curve’s shape, helping to clean up and optimize your F-Curves.

Redo Panel

The options for this operation will appear in the Redo Panel at the bottom left of the Graph Editor. The Options are:

Channel Filter

This dropdown option allows you to specify which F-Curves get processed for redundant key removal.

• All: processes any F-Curve meeting the other Redo Panel criteria. This option is effective for cleaning up entire animations, but use with caution as it affects all curves.
• Selected Objects/Bones: This option will only process the F-Curves of selected objects or bones in Pose Mode.
• Selected F-Curves: This option will only process the selected F-Curves in the Graph Editor.
• Visible F-Curves: The default setting. It will only process F-Curves in the Graph Editor whose visibility is enabled.

Slots

When using Blender 4.3 or newer (with the Action Slots API), this dropdown lets you choose which action slots to process. In earlier versions it falls back to the raw F-Curves.

• All Slots: remove redundant keys across every slot in the action (useful if you’ve organized curves into multiple named slots).
• Active Slot: only remove redundant keys from the currently active slot in the action (ideal for focused edits).

Keep Modifier Channels

Enabling this option will protect F-Curves from key removal when they have an F-Curve Modifier. This is useful when curves get their animation values from Modifiers like Noise, Built-In Function, etc., where removing keys might interfere with the modifier’s effect.

Keep Constraint Channels

Enabling this option will protect F-Curves from key removal when they control constraint properties. This prevents accidental removal of keys that control constraint influence or other constraint parameters.

Tolerance

This value determines how close keyframe values need to be to be considered redundant. A higher tolerance will remove more keys but may slightly alter the animation curve. A lower tolerance is more conservative and preserves the original curve shape more precisely. The default value of 0.001 works well for most cases.

Keep Endpoints

When enabled, this option preserves the first and last keyframes of each F-Curve, even if they are redundant. This is useful when you want to maintain the timing boundaries of your animation. When disabled, redundant first and last keys will also be removed if they don’t contribute to the curve shape.

How It Works

The Delete Static Keys operator analyzes your F-Curves to identify and remove keyframes that are redundant:

• Middle Keys: Removes keyframes that lie exactly on the line between their neighboring keys, or have the same value as their neighbors within the specified tolerance.
• Endpoint Keys: When “Keep Endpoints” is disabled, removes first or last keys that have the same value as their immediate neighbor.
• Linear Interpolation Check: Uses mathematical interpolation to determine if a key’s removal would change the curve shape.

Blender’s Built-in Alternative

Blender includes a built-in Decimate (Ratio) command for removing keyframes, but it has significant limitations that make Delete Static Keys a better choice for most workflows:

• Unwanted Results: Decimate often removes important keyframes while keeping redundant ones, leading to unpredictable animation changes.
• Interpolation Changes: Decimate automatically converts all keyframes to Bézier interpolation, which can ruin your animation when working in Stepped (Constant) interpolation mode during blocking, or when using Linear interpolation for mechanical movements.
• No Smart Detection: Unlike Delete Static Keys, Decimate doesn’t analyze whether a keyframe is actually redundant—it simply removes keys based on a ratio.

Delete Static Keys preserves your original interpolation modes and only removes truly redundant keyframes, making it the superior choice for maintaining animation quality.

Use Cases

• Motion Capture Cleanup: Remove unnecessary keys from dense mocap data while preserving the essential motion.
• Auto-Key Cleanup: Clean up curves that have been created with auto-keying enabled, removing redundant keys that don’t change the animation.
• Optimization: Reduce file size and improve performance by removing unnecessary keyframes from complex animations.
• Graph Editor Simplification: Make F-Curves easier to read and edit by removing visual clutter from redundant keys.

Tips

• Start with a higher tolerance (like 0.01) for aggressive cleanup, then use a lower tolerance (like 0.001) for fine-tuning.
• Use “Keep Endpoints” when you want to preserve the timing boundaries of your animation.
• Test with “Selected F-Curves” first before applying to all visible curves.
• Always save your work before running the operation, as it modifies your keyframes.